(SFX: CARNIVAL B.G.) TANNER: Hey Zach! Zachary! What did I say about wandering off like that? You have to be careful of strangers. ZACH: Sorry. TANNER: Here. ZACH: Uh, Dad? Balloons are for babies. TANNER: Right. What about that cotton candy? Is that still… ZACH: Oh, no. That’s fine. We could share it after my ride. TANNER: I’ll try to save you some. It looks awfully good to me. ZACH: Dad! After the ride! I’ll be watching you. (MUSIC OVER ACTION/ZACH RIDES THE CAROUSEL) (F/X: MEN APPROACH TANNER) ZACH: Dad!

(PASSAGE OF TIME)

ZACH: Dad!

(MUSIC OUT)

(THEME MUSIC UP OVER OPENING TITLE/SCENES/ CREDITS AND OUT)

MUSIC IN:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – DAY

(SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE OPEN) “HONOR CODE”

TONY: A whole hour for a lunch run, Probie? MCGEE: Yeah, while Ziva and I were out, she asked me to show her the best routes to work. You know, her driving’s gotten a lot better. Barely broke any laws this time. TONY: Let me get this straight. Ziva asked you, who can barely navigate the Navy Yard, to show her the best way to work? MCGEE: That’s right. TONY: Well, what about me? I know every shortcut in the metro area. I could shave ten minutes off her commute like that! MCGEE: I don’t know what to tell you. TONY: It doesn’t make any sense. Unless -- maybe I intimidate her. MCGEE: Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. TONY: I’ve seen it happen before. It’s a chemical thing. Hard to explain. ZIVA: I do hope you try. TONY: I told you not to do that again. ZIVA: Sorry. I was so intimidated in your presence, I must have forgotten. Seriously, Tony. I do apologize for not asking your advice on my commute. TONY: Don’t worry about it. ZIVA: If I would have known you would have felt so… emasculated… is the word? MCGEE: Yes, it is. ZIVA: Emasculated, I would have asked you first. TONY: It takes a little more than an exotic accent and some stealth ninja moves to emasculate me. ZIVA: Only a little more? How disappointing. (MCGEE CHUCKLES) TONY: Don’t take sides, Probie! GIBBS: Gear up. We have a missing person. Coleman Park Carousel in Arlington. ZIVA: A child? GIBBS: Father. Lieutenant Commander Alex Tanner. Disappeared an hour ago. ZIVA: Do you always respond to missing person’s cases so promptly? GIBBS: Special circumstances, Ziva. His six year old son called NCIS. He’s in the park, alone, waiting for us. DiNozzo, you drive. TONY: Ooh, I think McGee wants to drive, Boss. MCGEE: Ah, you know what, Tony? I would really rather have you drive. TONY: Afraid you’re going to run over another fire hydrant? Because I’m sure that wasn’t your fault. Wait. It was, according to the police report. ZIVA: I’ll drive. GIBBS: One more word, you’re all walking. TONY: You got it, Boss.(BEAT) I deserved that. (ELEVATOR DOOR SLIDES SHUT)

CUT TO:

EXT. CAROUSEL – DAY

(INTERCUT FLASHBACK SCENE)

TONY: Zach, hey. I’m Special Agent DiNozzo, you can call me Tony, okay? That’s a smart thing to do, calling NCIS. Good boy. All right, I know this really scary, but I want you to be brave. Can you do that? Okay, I want you to think back to what happened today. Try to remember the details. There’s no wrong answer here. GIBBS: What do we know? TONY: Nothing. I think the kid’s in shock. ZACH: No, I’m not. I’m waiting for Agent DiNozzo to ask me a question. TONY: What kinds of questions was I supposed to ask? ZACH: What I saw. Why I called NCIS. GIBBS: What did you see, Zach? ZACH: Two men were watching us. I think they kidnapped my Dad. GIBBS: Describe them. ZACH: Dark glasses. One had a military haircut. One had a shaved head. TONY: How old? ZACH: About your age. They had Ipods, too. TONY: It’s like a Walkman, Boss. Ipod. ZACH: They were only listening in one ear like this. GIBBS: Be back in a minute, Zach. (GIBBS AND TONY WALK TO THE SIDE) GIBBS: Dark glasses, earwigs. TONY: Sounds like Feds. GIBBS: You really think the FBI would arrest a man and leave his kid in the park, DiNozzo? TONY: Maybe our Commander took a walk. My father left me in the Maui Hilton for two days once. He didn’t even realize I was missing until he got the room service bill. ZIVA: Sad, but enlightening. MCGEE: Boss, I just spoke with the Commander’s C.O.. He’s very concerned. Apparently Commander Tanner was working on a highly classified D.O.D. project. GIBBS: What project, McGee? MCGEE: He wouldn’t say over an unsecured line. But I’m going to find out. GIBBS: Footage from the security cameras? ZIVA: Park Security released them to me. GIBBS: Okay, get ahold of Zach’s mom. She can pick him up at NCIS. MCGEE: (OVERLAP) Uh… uh… boss. Boss, um… his mother’s dead. Killed four years ago in a car accident. GIBBS: Primary next of kin? MCGEE: There is none. Just Commander Tanner and his son.

CUT TO:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – DAY

TONY: These guys are definitely pros. They keep their faces from the camera. All we’ve got to go on is the kid’s description of them. MCGEE: It doesn’t look like a kidnapping to me. They don’t have any guns. They barely touched the Commander. GIBBS: They could have threatened his son. TONY: Explains why they left him alone in the park. GIBBS: What do we know about Commander Tanner? MCGEE: Well, Boss, he is a brilliant man. A dual Ph. D. from Caltech in Number and Chaos Theory. I was actually reading his thesis online; he manages to link non-relativistic quantum effects-- GIBBS: Well, that’s useful to this case, McGee! MCGEE: Uh… the last three years he has been the Navy’s liaison with a defense contractor, Q and R software. Been the project lead on something called “Honor.” GIBBS: Which is? MCGEE: Classified. Uh… I put a call into the head of security over there. No one’s gotten back to me. So I thought I would pay them a visit. GIBBS: Yeah, that’s a good answer. Tony, go with him. ZIVA: The sketch artist is done with Zach’s descriptions. The boy has remarkable memory. There’s also someone here from Social Security to pick him up. GIBBS: Services, Ziva. Social Security is for older people. ZIVA: Noted. Do you want me to tell the boy? GIBBS: No, I’ll handle it. Here. Sit down. Put out a BOLO on the composites. (TO ZACH) Hey Zach, good job on the sketches, man. ZACH: Thanks. That’s Social Services, huh? GIBBS: Mm-hmm. Yeah, they’re going to take care of you until we get your dad back. ZACH: I can take care of myself. GIBBS: I don’t doubt that. ZACH: But I still have to go. GIBBS: Yeah, just for a while. Come on. ZACH: What if you… what if you don’t find my dad, Agent Gibbs? GIBBS: I’ll find him, Zach. I’ll find him. Hey, if you ever need me or even if you just want to talk, you call, okay?

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY – DAY

LAURA: I’m sorry we didn’t get back to you right away, Agent McGee. We’ve been having some problems of our own. MCGEE: What kind of problems? LAURA: Honestly, I don’t know. I’m only Mister Connell’s assistant. I’m sure he can-- (SFX: LIGHTS CLICK OFF) LAURA: That’s been happening for the last half hour or so. They should snap back on. TONY: Are you all right, Ms. Osgood? LAURA: Uh, it’s Laura. TONY: Laura. FRANK: Ms. Osgood. I’ll take it from here. Frank Connell, Q and R Security. You certainly got here fast. WILDER: We just found out about the break-in ourselves an hour ago.

CUT TO:

INT. CONNELL’S OFFICE – DAY

WILDER: At zero three hundred this morning, our network was breached. We didn’t detect the intrusion until we attempted to boot up our main servers for maintenance. FRANK: Since then we’ve had our hands full tracking down the viruses they embedded in our system. MCGEE: Do we know yet what data’s been compromised, Commander? WILDER: It’s clear they were going after a working copy of Honor, but fortunately it’s protected by a key that exists outside our system. TONY: Key doesn’t sound very high tech. FRANK: An asymmetric algorithm key that’s committed to memory. WILDER: Without it, you can’t get the software to work. It’s just random ones and zeros. Completely worthless. FRANK: So you see, NCIS has nothing to worry about, gentlemen. TONY: Great. Except that’s not why we’re here. MCGEE: Who has the Honor key committed to memory? WILDER: Our project leader, Lieutenant Commander Tanner.

(SFX: GIBBS BLOWS UP A RUBBER GLOVE) TONY: New hires just keep getting younger, eh, Madam Director? SHEPARD: Obviously you didn’t get the memo, Agent DiNozzo. TONY: What memo? ZIVA: The one where it explains the next person who calls her Madam gets keel hauled, whatever that is. TONY: It’s…. SHEPARD: Unpleasant. Tell Gibbs I want him upstairs. GIBBS: What did the Director want? ZIVA: You… upstairs. I better check on those sketches. TONY: I got a BOLO out on a black Chevy Suburban, Boss. But without plates? GIBBS: DiNozzo, you will spend the next twenty four personally checking each one in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.. TONY: That’s like an impossible – I’m on that. GIBBS: (TO ZACH) You keep an eye on him for me. I’ll be right back. (GIBBS WALKS O.S.) TONY: You know, he was just kidding about keeping an eye on me. ZACH: I couldn’t remember when Gibbs asked me, but I think I got it right. TONY: Got what right? ZACH: The numbers… on the license plate. (INTERCUT FLASHBACK SCENE)

ZACH: I was scared, but I remember most of the numbers. TONY: Oh right, Zach! My man! Come on. Give me five! Come on, meet me up high! All right. We’ll work on that. Good job.

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY – DAY

SHEPARD: Always admired your way with children. Ever think of having any of your own? GIBBS: Is that an offer, Jen? SHEPARD: No, it wasn’t an offer, Jethro. It was merely an observation. GIBBS: You know why I get along with kids so well? Because when they lie they don’t have the guile to get away with it. You wanted to see me? SHEPARD: I have spent the last hour on video-conference with the Directors of the FBI, NSA, and Homeland Security. GIBBS: Your kind of tea party. SHEPARD: If Project Honor’s compromised, it will cripple our intelligence networks. They all want jurisdiction on this one. GIBBS: And you said… SHEPARD: I have my best agent working it. Now tell me you have something. GIBBS: The same men who kidnapped the Commander went after his son. SHEPARD: Have you considered that Commander Tanner might not have been kidnapped? GIBBS: I have. SHEPARD: And? GIBBS: I don’t buy it.

SHEPARD: Your famous gut again? GIBBS: No. His son.

CUT TO:

INT. LAB – DAY

GIBBS: Abs, give me good news. ABBY: Oh my god, I got this email that says I may have already won fifty million dollars. And I’m really, really psyched. Oh, you mean about the case? I’ve been going through Q and R security logs. It’s like the Fort Knox of computer systems. MCGEE: Next generation anti-virus software, intrusion detection… ABBY: Crypto processors, ACLs, firewalls up the wazoo. GIBBS: Hey hey. ABBY: Um… okay. No one can penetrate the system, Gibbs. It could be disabled if someone had a high enough clearance. GIBBS: It’s an inside job. ABBY: Q and R is monitored twenty four seven. All the employees have passwords to gain access to the system. MCGEE: Like digital fingerprints. Every keystroke recorded for posterity. ABBY: At three a.m. this morning, someone planted a virus into the network. It shut down the security system for exactly one hour. MCGEE: Long enough for our hacker to breach the network, remove the software and plant the viruses. GIBBS: Who?

CHIP: The virus originated from Commander Tanner’s terminal, Sir. GIBBS: Someone else could have used it. CHIP: No, Sir. The data is very clear. Simply pointing out that Q and R’s security system was designed to be accurate under the circumstances, Sir. ABBY: Chip! MCGEE: He’s right about the design, though, Boss. GIBBS: Who designed it? MCGEE: Uh, Q and R’s risk management team. But all of their people are former law enforcement and military, vetted at the highest level. GIBBS: Commander Tanner was vetted at the highest level, too. MCGEE: Tony is reviewing statements from the employees. I’m reviewing the computer terminals, but the virus wiped a lot of files. It doesn’t look good for the Commander, Boss. GIBBS: Wipe that dirt off your lip! CHIP: Dirt?

CUT TO:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – DAY

(SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE OPEN) LAURA: I feel like I’ve wasted your time, Agent DiNozzo. TONY: Bite your tongue. You’ve been great. LAURA: I just feel so bad for that poor little boy. TONY: Well listen, if you think of anything, you give me a call day or night. Home phone number’s on the back.

(SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE CLOSED) TONY: Where’ve you been? I could have used your help with those interviews. ZIVA: Oh? You look like you had your hands full with her. TONY: Watch your sexual innuendo around the kid. He’s had a hard day. ZIVA: He’s taking it better than most adults. He’s resilient. TONY: Do you see the way he’s been acting around me? ZIVA: I think it’s because he doesn’t like you, Tony. TONY: Kids dig me. ZIVA: No they don’t! TONY: Zach. Zacharoo, buddy! Come on over here, man. I was going to wait until tomorrow when everyone was here…but considering what a brave little boy you’ve been and how much you’ve helped us. I’m going to make you an honorary NCIS Agent. ZACH: Thanks. I’ve got to go to the head. (SFX: ZIVA LAUGHS) ZIVA: Yes, Tony. I was mistaken. Your way with children is only rivaled by your way with women. TONY: He’s under a lot of stress. GIBBS: Where is Zach? TONY: Potty break, Boss. GIBBS: You gonna speak? ZIVA: I got an I.D. on one of our suspects. His name is Vincent Pazzo. Italian born. Freelance mercenary. Black ops, mostly. Some wet work. TONY: How’d you find out about that? ZIVA: I sent Zach’s sketches to some people who owe me a favor. TONY: Well, if he’s got the Honor program and the guy who knows how to make it work, then why’d they go after the kid? GIBBS: To force him to cooperate. ZIVA: Then there’s a possibility that Commander Tanner set this up to make it look like kidnapping. GIBBS: Keep your voice down. TONY: Shh! ZIVA: That’s what I would do if it were my op. The authorities are looking for a kidnapper when they should be looking for a traitor. GIBBS: It doesn’t feel right, Ziva. ZIVA: It doesn’t have to feel right to be right, Gibbs.

CUT TO:

INT. BASEMENT – NIGHT

(SFX: SANDING) ZACH: Gibbs, can I ask you a question? GIBBS: Yeah, shoot. ZACH: How are you going to get this out of here when it’s finished? GIBBS: Good question. I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it much. ZACH: I think maybe you could use a crane or something. GIBBS: Yeah? I could dig a ramp. Knock that wall out and hoist it out of here. ZACH: I went sailing once with my dad and Commander Wilder. Didn’t go too well. GIBBS: Did you get seasick?

ZIVA: Where’s Gibbs? MCGEE: Uh… home with Zach. What’s up? ZIVA: Commander Tanner’s bank statement. Do American’s usually empty out their bank accounts before they take their children to the park? MCGEE: You’re kidding! ZIVA: Savings, checking, money market. Twenty three thousand dollars. MCGEE: Gibbs is not going to like this. ZIVA: Are we solving this case to please him? TONY: I got a trace on the Chevy Suburban. Zach missed two numbers on the plate but I found the vehicle. Rental car out of Maryland. ID’s fake. Credit card was stolen. But that’s our other kidnapper.

MCGEE: Does the car have a navigation system? Because we could use the GPS… TONY: Two words for you, McGee. Lo and Jack. MCGEE: That’s one word. ZIVA: A what? TONY: It’s a… whatever. I tracked it down to a parking lot a couple miles from here. GIBBS: Good job, McGee. MCGEE: What? GIBBS: Come on, let’s roll! ZIVA: Where’s the child?

CUT TO:

INT. LAB – DAY

DUCKY: Now keep your eye on the coin. Yeah…. and this…. now that, my young friend, is magic. Now a true magician doesn’t reveal the mysteries of his craft to anyone else but another magician. But would you like to learn? ZACH: It’s in that hand. Isn’t it? DUCKY: Oh! So it is. He’s quite observant. ABBY: Does he remind you of anyone? DUCKY: Ah, very good.

DUCKY: Oh Ducky, please. ZIVA: Ducky! GIBBS: Are you two done with the name game? DUCKY: Our guest departed this world only a few hours ago, but he was in a great deal of pain before he died. Seems he was wounded. Single round. The bullet lodged under his scapula. The shoulder blade. GIBBS: Duck, I’m going to guess that slug’s from my safe. DUCKY: As to the fatal injury, this circular burn around the entry wound suggests… ZIVA: A silencer was used. It was done in haste by someone with little, if any, experience. If a professional did this, he would have not left his weapon. It’s untidy. Marks of an amateur. If it were me? I would not have been so obvious. There are literally dozens of effective ways to eliminate a target without raising suspicions. Heroin overdose is popular, but it requires a history of prior use. Of course something like insulin or potassium can be used to suggest death by natural causes. DUCKY: I really must ask you over for dinner. Mother would love to talk with you. GIBBS: They cleaned house. I wounded him when he tried to grab Zach. After that he was a liability. ZIVA: Once, again, I suggest Commander Tanner may be involved. All the evidence says he stole the software. He cleared out his bank accounts. He likely killed this man. You have to admit from an investigator’s point of view, the pieces fit together quite well. (LONG BEAT) Or not.

CUT TO:

INT. LAB – DAY

GIBBS: Abby! CHIP: Ballistics Lab, Sir. GIBBS: Are you serving in the military? CHIP: No, Sir. I was denied that -- GIBBS: Stop standing at attention. CHIP: I just believe it’s good posture, Sir. ABBY: What? No Zachster? GIBBS: Abby, you’re yelling. ABBY: Oh, sorry. Where is he? GIBBS: He’s upstairs. ABBY: He’s a cool kid. Reminds me of you. He’s like a Mini-Gibbs. Austin Powers? GIBBS: You calling Zach a Mini-me? ABBY: Gibbs, I am so impressed with your pop culture reference! GIBBS: Tell me about the weapon. ABBY: All right. It’s a Makarov Three Eighty. It matches the hollow point slugs from the body downstairs. And this bad boy that we pulled from his shoulder matches your Sig. GIBBS: Any prints on the Three Eighty? ABBY: Only from the dead guy. GIBBS: Tell me you have something else. ABBY: I have something else. GIBBS: What is it? ABBY: Chip shaved his mustache. GIBBS: I didn’t notice. CHIP: Didn’t notice? ABBY: He doesn’t notice unimportant things, Chip. Sorry, Chip. Didn’t mean it.

CUT TO:

INT. ELEVATOR – DAY

(SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE OPEN) GIBBS: You getting off, Director? SHEPARD: Looking for you actually. I saw Ducky’s report on the body downstairs. (SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE SHUT) GIBBS: That was fast. SHEPARD: One of the perks of being Director. I get to read all the good reports. What’s next, Jethro? (SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE OPEN) GIBBS: Finishing this conversation. SHEPARD: Don’t give me a hard time. (SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE SHUT) GIBBS: I didn’t realize I was. SHEPARD: The man who supposedly kidnapped Commander Tanner is lying dead in our autopsy room. Tanner is looking less and less like a victim. GIBBS: You want back in the field again, Jen? (SFX: ELEVATOR DINGS/DOORS SLIDE OPEN) SHEPARD: Tanner has technology that could set back our intelligence monitoring thirty years. Pardon me for taking an interest. GIBBS: And here I thought you just wanted an excuse to spend time together. SHEPARD: I just want to know that this is about more than a fatherless child to you. MCGEE: Boss! SHEPARD: Didn’t you notice that we’re in the middle of a conversation, Agent McGee! MCGEE: Sorry. Should I come back? GIBBS: No. SHEPARD: (OVERLAP) Yes. GIBBS: I’m simply trying to solve your case here, Director. SHEPARD: Speak. MCGEE: Commander Wilder is here. He works with Commander Tanner at Q and R.

CUT TO:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – DAY

GIBBS: Commander Wilder. WILDER: I went by his house to grab some stuff for him. Your Agents wouldn’t let me in. So I bought him a Nintendo to play with. MCGEE: That’s the D.S. It’s an excellent system. I’ve heard. WILDER: This is a hell of a situation. Zach’s been through so much in his life already. GIBBS: Is there a reason you wanted to see me? WILDER: Commander Tanner is a close friend. I was hoping for information. Over at Q and R they’re saying he’s a suspect. Do you know the sacrifices he’s made to serve our country? GIBBS: I do. WILDER: I don’t care what the computer log says. Commander Tanner is no traitor. What’s it going to take to prove that? GIBBS: Finding who is.

WILDER: Then you should be looking at Q and R’s civilian employees, because right now they’re falling all over themselves to try and protect their collective asses. What about Zach? Where’s he staying? GIBBS: With me. WILDER: I’m the closest thing he has to family. I can take him home with me. GIBBS: Can’t do that. He’s under protective custody. WILDER: You mean they’re after Zach, too? GIBBS: We’ll take good care of him, Commander. WILDER: I’m just going to say goodbye. (WILDER WALKS TO ZACH) MCGEE: Boss, so did you tell him we think Tanner’s innocent? GIBBS: We don’t know he is. Do you have something to say, McGee? TONY: I’ve been going through the evidence we bagged from the vehicle, Boss. Prepaid burn phone. Guess whose number’s on the caller I.D.? Frank Connell, Q and R office.

CUT TO:

INT. OFFICE – DAY

FRANK: What the hell are you doing here? LAURA: I couldn’t stop them, Mister Connell. TONY: It’s not her fault. She was overwhelmed by a Federal search warrant. FRANK: This is completely out of line. I have been nothing but cooperative. TONY: Explain why you called the kidnappers from this office the day the Honor Code went missing.

FRANK: That’s a ridiculous accusation. TONY: Denying you were here? FRANK: I said in my statement I was working late that night. GIBBS: So you made the call. MCGEE: Someone’s tampered with this hard drive. Tried to erase the command logs the morning of the robbery. FRANK: We had a virus. It corrupted thousands of files. GIBBS: Is that what happened, McGee? MCGEE: I can’t tell ‘till we get back to the lab. GIBBS: Okay, bag and tag. MCGEE: You cannot remove that computer from this building! TONY: Don’t worry. You’re going with it. FRANK: Go up and call the lawyers. TONY: (V.O.) You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you.

CUT TO:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – NIGHT

TONY: Hey. ZIVA: Gibbs got Connell talking yet? TONY: His lawyer won’t let him talk, so Gibbs is giving him the old stare. ZIVA: Gibbs does it much better. TONY: Apple for the teacher? ZIVA: It’s for McGee. He’s been very generous with me. Helping me adjust to this new city. TONY: So you’re giving him an apple? ZIVA: It’s a small gesture.

TONY: Well if you want to thank him, why don’t you just get him a date? Gibbs wants to know if you’ve got anything he can use on Connell. ZIVA: Frank Connell’s a deacon at his church. Never had a moving violation, let alone a parking ticket. And he calls his mother every Sunday. The man is spic and spam. TONY: The saying is spic and span. Spam is lunch meat. ZIVA: Oh. What exactly is span then? TONY: Span is… I’ll get back to you on that. ZIVA: In my opinion, Frank Connell is not involved in this. TONY: Oh, good. I’ll let Gibbs know right away because he loves to hear our opinions. ZIVA: He’s distracted by his affections for Zach. TONY: Gibbs doesn’t get distracted. ZIVA: What do you call it then? TONY: The Boss moves in mysterious ways. Get this to him. ZIVA: Why me? TONY: Because I’m going to go see your little buddy McGee. ZIVA: Hey, put that back! TONY: I’m just bringing it to him.

MCGEE: Well, I’ve got scraps of code, protocols, commands. He might have put the trace in, collected Tanner’s passwords, stolen the software. ABBY: Might have and think are not going to make Gibbs happy. MCGEE: Well, whoever wiped his files did a really good job, because there is nothing left but fragments. Can’t Gibbs just break Connell in interrogation? TONY: Not with a five hundred dollar an hour defense attorney breathing down his neck. Puts it on you, McGee. MCGEE: Well, nothing I have found contradicts any of the evidence we had against Commander Tanner. TONY: I’m with you, Probie. But he’s feeling pretty strong about this one. MCGEE: Has anyone considered the fact that Gibbs may be wrong this time? ABBY: (GASPS) McGee, bite your tongue! Gibbs knows what he’s doing. We just have to show him love. TONY: We show the love, Abby. Just don’t want to let the bad guys get away while we’re doing it. Almost blocked my shot there, Chipper. Ever play ball? CHIP: College. TONY: Oh, yeah? Me, too. ABBY: Tony here ran point for Ohio State. TONY: What conference did you play in? CHIP: We didn’t exactly have a conference. TONY: Division? CHIP: Not really. It was more of an intramural thing. TONY: Skins and moustaches? ABBY: Whatcha got for me? Chip?

CHIP: Fingerprint analysis results. ABBY: You’re free to go, Chip. CHIP: Oh, I don’t mind staying late, Ma'am. ABBY: Go home Chip, please! CHIP: Is that an order? ABBY: Yes! Go! (CHIP WALKS O.S.) MCGEE: I don’t know how you concentrate around that guy. ABBY: I know. No, no, no, no, no! No! I’m too good at what I do. MCGEE: No, you’re not. ABBY: I am. And Gibbs is going to hate me for it! MCGEE: What happened? ABBY: Oh, it’s the following up on the murder weapon, double checking to see if there’s anything I missed. MCGEE: Was there? ABBY: Fingerprints. MCGEE: On the gun?! ABBY: On the rounds in the magazine. MCGEE: Well that’s great! ABBY: Most people get obsessed about cleaning the grip and the trigger. They don’t think twice about the bullets. Now we’ve got a nice partial thumb, a forefinger, and a perfect index print. MCGEE: Amazing. ABBY: Yeah, I know. MCGEE: So whose prints are they? ABBY: Commander Tanner’s.

(MUSIC OUT)

MUSIC IN:

INT. BASEMENT – NIGHT

GIBBS: Yeah. Yeah, at this rate we’ll have her seaworthy in no time. ZACH: Maybe my dad can help when he gets back. GIBBS: Hubba-hubba. Dinner at the White House? SHEPARD: A date, actually. GIBBS: Must be an important guy for you to get all decked out. SHEPARD: I’d prefer if you just told me that you liked my dress. GIBBS: I haven’t decided yet. SHEPARD: (TO ZACH) Do you mind giving us a moment? GIBBS: Zach, why don’t you go upstairs and grab a soda. (ZACH WALKS O.S.) SHEPARD: How long are you planning on keeping Frank Connell locked up? GIBBS: You make a house call to reprimand me, Jen? SHEPARD: You’ve got Commander Tanner’s fingerprints on the bullets of the murder weapon. GIBBS: Well, I’m not sure he did it. SHEPARD: Why? And don’t tell me your famous gut again. Zach is a great kid, Jethro. Doesn’t mean his father’s not a bastard. GIBBS: He might be, but Zach’s our only link to him. SHEPARD: You think he might make another attempt to get Zach back? GIBBS: If he does I’ll be waiting for him. ZACH: My dad didn’t do anything wrong! SHEPARD: It’s a complicated situation. ZACH: It’s not! SHEPARD: Zach…

GIBBS: Zach, there is evidence he did something wrong. ZACH: It doesn’t matter. I know in my, my stomach he didn’t do anything wrong. You promised you’d bring him back to me, Gibbs. Please!

CUT TO:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – DAY

MCGEE: Where’s Zach? GIBBS: Ducky’s. MCGEE: Listen, Boss, I spent half the night taking Frank Connell’s hard drive apart. There was nothing. I think we need to accept that Commander Tanner sold the software. GIBBS: I’m not accepting anything. MCGEE: Boss… GIBBS: We need to look at this a different way. ZIVA: I agree. I just talked to the CIA. They were very cooperative. MCGEE: They were? ZIVA: He owed me a favor. MCGEE: How many people owe you favors? ZIVA: How many dates does Tony go on a month? This is from Kosovo in the late nineties. The man with the shaved head is Vincent Pazzo. The one on the left is Willis Hirst. They were mercenaries for the Kosovo Liberation Army. MCGEE: Freedom fighters. ZIVA: Not exactly. They worked for a warlord as specialists. MCGEE: What specialty? ZIVA: Coercion. GIBBS: Torture.

MCGEE: But the evidence we have against Commander Tanner. ZIVA: This is a covert operation. Take nothing at face value. They framed Commander Tanner as a diversion. GIBBS: While they torture him for the access code. MCGEE: Maybe he won’t talk. ZIVA: Have you ever been tortured, McGee? There’s only so much torment a human body can bear. Strong men break in a few days, but nobody can hold out forever. Not even Gibbs. With a trained interrogator, it can be done in less time. I can get that code in hours. MCGEE: They’ve had him for two days. ZIVA: He’s running out of time if he hasn’t talked already. GIBBS: A few hours, huh? ZIVA: Give or take. GIBBS: I’m putting you in a room with Frank Connell. You have forty minutes. TONY: I’d hold off on that, Boss. GIBBS: DiNozzo, where have you been? TONY: Tracking down the convenience store where our dead guy purchased his cell phone. Not easy, by the way. The language barrier between me and Mister Singh was no piece of cake either. But once I convinced him I wasn’t going to shut down his convenience store, he gave me his surveillance video tapes. Is this poppy seed? GIBBS: Where is the video? TONY: Abby’s lab. Sorry, Boss. She’s scanning the tapes now.

CUT TO:

INT. LAB – DAY

ABBY: The phone was purchased with cash a week before Commander Tanner disappeared. GIBBS: Pause the tape. That woman’s got four phones in her hands.

TONY: Zoom in, Abs. Oh, yeah. The lips and the angle of the chin, the curve of the neck. ABBY: Okay, we got it, Tony. She’s attractive. TONY: It’s Laura Osgood. Frank Connell’s assistant. ABBY: I’ll make you a print… I hate it when they do that. (TONY AND GIBBS WALK O.S.)

CUT TO:

INT. CONNELL’S OFFICE – DAY

LAURA: What’s going on? GIBBS: You bought phones connected to a robbery, a kidnapping and a murder. ZIVA: Gibbs, her number matches several calls on the kidnapper’s phone. GIBBS: You’re done. Only way to help yourself is tell us everything you know. LAURA: I want a lawyer. GIBBS: Commander Tanner’s been gone for forty seven hours. ZIVA: If he’s not dead yet, he soon will be. MCGEE: Maybe we can convince her to change her mind about the lawyer. ZIVA: Oh, I can convince her far more than that. GIBBS: How long? ZIVA: Not long. GIBBS: McGee, are you thirsty? Come on. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee. (DOOR CLOSES)

CUT TO:

INT. LOBBY – DAY

MCGEE: Boss, what exactly is Ziva doing in there? (BEAT) I don’t want to know.

CUT TO:

INT. CONNELL’S OFFICE – DAY

LAURA: It was a three man team. I was on the inside. I put a trace on Commander Tanner’s computer to get his passwords. I planted the virus using his log-in. ZIVA: Keep going, Laura. LAURA: Pazzo and Hirst grabbed Commander Tanner to get the access code. MCGEE: Who set it up? LAURA: I don’t know. We were contacted separately. Money was wired. Instructions emailed on an anonymous server. GIBBS: Where is he? ZIVA: Commander Tanner, where is he being tortured? LAURA: (CRYING) That wasn’t part of my assignment. Please, they’ll kill me. It’s a garage near Coleman Park.

(SFX: GUNFIRE) GIBBS: Clear! Commander Tanner. TANNER: Zach? GIBBS: He’s all right. He’s safe. We’ve got him. TANNER: They told me they had him. If I didn’t give them the code, they were going to kill him. GIBBS: You gave them the key? TANNER: I had to. They had my son. They showed me proof. GIBBS: What proof? (INTERCUT FLASHBACK SCENE)

WILDER: I could have never hurt Zach. It was strictly business. TONY: We’ll be sure to let him know that.

MUSICAL BRIDGE TO:

INT. SQUAD ROOM – DAY

GIBBS: Are you okay? ZACH: I guess. Commander Wilder was my dad’s … he was my friend, Gibbs. I should have known. I shouldn’t have let him fool me like that.

GIBBS: Zach, sometimes really bad people are good at fooling you. ZACH: Anybody bad ever fool you? GIBBS: Oh, yeah. More than once. ZACH: Someday I’m going to find them and put them all in jail. GIBBS: I believe you will.